Public Consultation On The Proposed Reforms To Consumer And Competition Enforcement In Ireland

The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (the "Department") has opened a public consultation seeking stakeholder input on key legislative proposals to be included in the Consumer Protection, Competition and Enforcement Bill 2026 (the "Proposed Bill"). The legislative proposals seek to strengthen consumer protection and enforcement in Ireland. This would align Irish consumer protection with EU standards and also forms part of the Government's commitments under the Programme for Government and the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity.

The public consultation seeks views on the following three key measures which are under consideration for inclusion in the Proposed Bill:

1. Administrative Financial Sanctions: Empowering the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to impose proportionate administrative fines for egregious or systemic breaches of consumer law.
2. Bid-Rigging Detection Powers: Granting the CCPC authority to screen public procurement data for patterns of collusion.
3. Strengthening Consumer Rights and Remedies: Proposed updates to the Consumer Rights Act 2022 to clarify remedies for prohibited practices, including clearer rules on price reductions and contract cancellations.

Administrative Financial Sanctions

Under the Consumer Protection Act 2007, as amended by the Consumer Rights Act 2022, the CCPC is currently authorised to issue fixed payment notices of up to €1,500 for violations of consumer law. For the imposition of more substantial penalties, the CCPC holds the authority under S.84 of the 2007 Act, to initiate summary proceedings. In such cases, the courts are empowered to impose fines for consumer law violations, which may reach €5,000 upon summary conviction. When imposing a fine, the Court will consider the nature, the gravity and the duration of the breach.

Several competition and consumer protection authorities in the UK and in other EU Member States have the ability to impose more severe administrative sanctions for consumer law breaches than that of the CCPC. The Proposed Bill empowers the CCPC to impose proportionate fines of over €1,500 for serious breaches of consumer law. This will place Ireland in line with other EU Member States, providing a more flexible enforcement regime, without always resorting to court proceedings, which can be slow and resource intensive. Consideration will need to be given to potential appeal routes and ensuring proportionality measures are in place.

Further, the CCPC has received similar powers to impose administrative financial sanctions for breaches of Irish and EU competition law (subject to court approval) up to a maximum of €10 million or 10% of an undertaking's worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year, whichever is greater, a power derived from the 2002 Act as amended by the Competition (Amendment) Act 2022. The ability to impose proportionate administrative financial sanctions in relation to consumer law will also place the CCPC on a level statutory footing with other governmental agencies such as the Data Protection Commission, which has the power to impose fines of up to €20 million and Commisiún na Meán, which has the power to impose a fine of up to 6% of the offending provider's turnover.

In light of the recent trend of broadening governmental agencies powers to impose administrative financial sanctions, it is unsurprising that the Department is moving to expand the CCPC's authority to impose administrative financial sanctions for consumer law breaches, following their recent empowerment in competition law.

Bid-Rigging Detection Powers

Of equal significance, is the proposal to grant the CCPC authority to screen public procurement data, to identify patterns of potential bid-rigging, in line with recommendations from the Hamilton Reporton "Structures and Strategies to Prevent, Investigate and Penalise Economic Crime and Corruption". Bid-rigging is a serious form of anti-competitive behaviour where businesses agree to fix the outcome of a tender or bidding process rather than compete fairly. The practice was to regard bid-rigging as a form of price fixing or market sharing however, Irelands Competition (Amendment) Act 2022 significantly updated the Competition Act 2002, introducing bid-rigging as a specific stand-alone offence. Under the Act, convictions for engaging in cartel activity such as bid-rigging can carry criminal penalties of up to ten years' imprisonment for individuals, and fines of up to €50 million or 20% of annual turnover (whichever is the greater) for individuals and undertakings.

Tackling bid-rigging and collusion in public tenders has been a particular enforcement priority for the CCPC in recent years. Commentators have welcomed the idea of strengthening tools to detect bid-rigging but have also emphasised it is critical that safeguards around data use and confidentiality regarding sensitive commercial information are built in. Further information will be required regarding the level of access the CCPC will have to public procurement data in order to address the significant concerns that businesses in this industry have over this new proposal. The Department is seeking views on the safeguards that should be in place to ensure that the CCPC's proposed powers are exercised proportionally.

Strengthening Consumer Rights and Remedies

Lastly, there is the proposal to update consumer protection legislation, including the Consumer Rights Act 2022. While any increase in rights will undoubtedly be welcome by consumer's, especially when the goal is to make the legislation easier to understand, as with any early-stage proposal, the detail will be critical. While the consultation is not specific about which remedies may change, the focus on price transparency and contract terms reflects concerns about misleading information and the complexity consumers face when asserting their rights in modern markets. Tightening these provisions should in theory reduce disputes, streamline redress and reduce ambiguity in consumer remedies but until full detail of the legislation is published it is hard to know how effective it will be.

What ties the above measures together is the recognition that Ireland's consumer framework must adapt to the realities of modern commerce and align with European Union standards. The Proposed Bill is an attempt to bride this gap and it will be interesting to see whether these legislative measures are perceived as achieving the intended aim of ultimately enhancing consumer protection.

Next Steps

The closing date for submissions to this consultation is 5pm on Friday, 27 February 2026 and submissions can be emailed to the Department's Consumer Policy Unit at conspol@enterprise.gov.ie.

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